Foster Care Failures Leave Children and Families Without Support

The Challenge: South Carolina faces major failures in its foster care system due to inadequate vetting, underfunding, and child safety risks.

What do South Carolinians think? There was a distinct call to improve the state-managed foster care system. Families describe a system that is “dysfunctional, underfunded, and never talked about.” The foster care system drew emotional testimony: "these are traumatized children with no hope, no rights, no voice, no future. How many more children will we allow to fall through the cracks?" A grandmother shared a devastating personal experience: "my great granddaughter was killed by foster/adopting parents and she is not the only child this has happened to." Child support enforcement was also raised: "there needs to be an ongoing program to collect court ordered child support — it is financially necessary for single parents and grandparents."